New Focus

Well after much discussion we have decided to adjust our focus. We are scaling the Dutch back to 2 varieties to include Blue and Gray. Samantha's main focus has become raising her silver fox rabbits. Alli and I are in love with the wool given by the German and French angoras that we raise. So... we are focusing more on a fiber farm since we are also raising Shetland Sheep and an Angora Goat.
Dutch are in no way taking a backseat to the others but we will be selling the chocolate Dutch to narrow the focus a bit.

We are very excited that we added 3 new rabbits to our barn this weekend. Two blue Dutch does (Taylor's Azure and Taylor's Blue Bell) and a blue French Angora buck. The Dutch does will be added to our breeding program right away. They are both very nice typed animals. The French Angora is a baby and it will be some time before we can harvest that luxurious blue wool.

On a side note, Alli washed her Shetland fleece from her ewe named Lily. It is really gorgeous. It has several colors in it. She is waiting impatiently for it to dry so that she can spin it with some angora mixed into it.

Well that is all from the homefront for today. We will try to add updates on a more frequent schedule from here on. Thanks for reading.
Sheri

Etsy Store

Well we are finally up and running. WE just opened our Etsy store. Alli will be busy listing things as she has time in the next couple days. We plan to not only have angora fiber but also other crafts including candles and tye dye shirts. Check us out here http://www.etsy.com/shop/allisbunnystuff?ref=si_shop

This is a video made this winter at a press conference for the Great Lakes Fair. My girls were featured in it. So proud!

Spring

Here we are and it is Spring finally. Although it doesn't seem like it today with the cold rain. It has been some time since we have been to a rabbit show. We are all looking forward to our next show. We miss our friends that we see there. We finally have some juniors to show. Alli will be bringing her broken blue satin doe and blue satin buck to the next show. Sammy has a really nice silver fox doe to show as well. Thanks to Henry Carpenter Sammy also has 4 chocolate Dutch thanks to show.

My little entrepreneurs are trying their hand at selling under the name of Bellairs Critters and More in the new Stockbridge Open Air Market. Samantha is in charge of marketing her homegrown eggs and her composting worms. Alli brings along her Angora wool, handspun angora yarn and knitted and crocheted craft items. Here is a picture of our first week. Alli made a lot of improvements since our first week but we haven't taken an updated photo.

I contribute the Crocheted Market Bags to the booth. They are crocheted using yarn made from the Bellairs Fiber Farm sheep. They are a natural color gray and very pretty with a lacy pattern. They sell for $20 unlined and $25 lined.

Stop by and see us at the market or give us a call and set up an appt to come to the house.

Long wait

Hey everybody that reads this blog. We have not been keeping up with this blog so I thought I would finely start posting on this again. Well to fill you in we are raising Blue, Chocolate, and Gray Dutch this is our main breed. We also have Blue and Broken Blue Satins. We have Black Silver Fox, a few diffrent colors in the Angoras, We are raiseing Giant/Germans and English/Germans. The last breed is Giant Chinchillas. I think that fills up what breeds we are currently raising. We also have Cavies they are Americans, Peruvians, and a couple Abbysinians. We will try to post more. So keep watching the blog. We always like your comments please leave some.

MSRBA Fall show

The last show of the year is now over. It was wonderful to spend time with bunny friends. The girls had a good show. Saturday results (best I can remember) best variety Gray Dutch, Best opposite Variety Blue Dutch, Best Variety Broken Satin, and Best opposite Variety Broken Satin. Alli showed her Cavies Saturday as well and had good results and a lot of fun. We went back Sunday for the third show where Allison won Best Opposite Breed with her Satin doe and Sammy won Best and Best Opposite with her Silver Foxes. We also won Best opposite variety Gray Dutch and Best and best opposite variety blue.

We sold a few Dutch and acquired a new breed - Giant Chinchilla. Giant Chin's are a rare breed and we are excited to start raising them.

We have several rabbits expecting including 2 angoras. One is a purebred German angora and one is a german/english hybrid. We are really looking forward to seeing the new babies.

Fair Results

Well the fair is over for another year! We had a great week and the girls had a lot of fun. Alli is a 4-H ambassador this year so she was very busy during the fair. Not only did she have her own shows to do but she was assisting all over the fair grounds during the week.

So the final results are:

• Alli - Best in Show Pocket Pets (Cavy Project)
• Alli - Honors on her Angora wool
• Alli - Honors on her tye dye shirt
• Alli - Honors "Lead with Fiber"
• Sammy - 1st place Jr. Showmanship Poultry
• Sammy - Reserve Grand Champion Bantam Pair
• Sammy - 1st Place Jr. Showmanship Rabbits
• Sammy - Best and Best Opposite Breed Silver Fox
• Alli- Best of Breed Dutch and Best 4 Class
• Alli- Best of Breed Giant Angora and Best Opposite 6 Class
• Alli - 6th place Sr. Showmanship

Nice job girls! It was a lot of hard work but it was worth it.